Self-propelled toys have existed for decades including devices for activating the toys by internal mechanisms including springs, weights, gears and batteries. Spring driven toy vehicles exist in several forms including a key for winding the spring and a lever coupled to the vehicle for releasing the energy stored in the spring for propelling the vehicle over a surface. Such devices included a ratchet or pawl mechanism which prevented the disc or shaft on which the spring was mounted from moving in the opposite direction until a lever coupled to the vehicle was released to set the toy in motion until the energy stored in the spring was expended, whereupon the key or crank would have to be turned again to restart the process. Problems with these toys included either easy loss of the key or were difficult to manipulate by small children.
Toy vehicles also utilizing spring motors were developed which included complex mechanisms enabling the spring motors to be wound by manually moving the vehicle in the reverse direction. In such devices, release of the vehicle after a predetermined movement thereof in the reverse direction enabled the vehicle to move forward under power of the spring motor which included transmission parts constructed to permit free coasting at the termination or run down of the energy output of the spring. Such toys were difficult to operate by small children and could be difficult to wind in the reverse direction. Consequently, a need exists for a self-propelled toy which is easy to operate for any age child by simply pressing down on a portion of the toy.